Centre bans e-cigarettes

NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday decided to ban e-cigarettes for which an ordinance was cleared making the production, import, export, transport, sale or advertisements of such "alternative" smoking devices a cognizable offence attracting jail term and fine.
First time violators will face a jail term of up to one year and a fine of Rs 1 lakh. For subsequent offences, a jail term of up to three years or a fine of Rs 5 lakh, or both have been prescribed, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who headed a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the issue, said.
Storage of electronic-cigarettes shall also be punishable with an imprisonment up to six months or fine of up to Rs 50,000, or both.
"The Cabinet today gave approval to a decision to ban e-cigarettes which is also otherwise technically called ENDS (Electronic nicotine delivery systems), which means production, manufacturing, import, export, transport, sale, distribution and storage and advertisement related to e cigarettes are all banned," Sitharaman said.
She said the Cabinet took the decision as e-cigarettes and similar products pose health risk to people, especially the youth.
The ordinance will come into force once approved by the President. It will be converted into a bill in the next session of Parliament.
Quoting data which, she said, was largely derived from the US' experience, Sitharaman noted that there has been a 77.8 per cent increase in the use of e-cigarettes among school students and surprisingly, use of such products by middle school students has also seen a 48.5 per cent rise.
Referring to ground reports in India, she said e-cigarettes, which unfortunately was promoted in the country initially as a way of quitting smoking, are becoming a "style statement".
"But reports say that actually many people are no longer using it to quit smoking and there are some who are getting into the habit because it seems cool," Sitharaman said.
Referring to seven deaths in the US recently, Sitharaman said those are directly linked to e-cigarettes.
Many people will say the long-term direct impact of e-cigarettes is yet to be scientifically established, the Union minister said, adding, "But the Cabinet rightly thought it is time we immediately take a decision so that our citizens' health is not put at risk."
According to an official statement, on the date of commencement of the ordinance, stocks of e-cigarettes will have to be suo motu declared and deposited with the nearest police stations.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan is out of the country and was not present in Wednesday's Cabinet meeting.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet also approved productivity-linked bonus equivalent to 78 days wages to over 11.52 lakh railway employees, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar has said.
This is for the sixth consecutive year that productivity-linked bonus is being given to railway employees.
The bonus for financial year 2018-19 would benefit 11 lakh employees and would cost the exchequer Rs 2024.40 crore, Javadekar said.
Payment of the bonus motivate a large number of railway employees to improve the performance and enhance the productivity levels further, besides maintaining industrial peace, an official statement later said.
However, railway unions are not happy with the benefit and said that they had expected an enhanced bonus.
"We had discussed this issue with the Railway Board at the appropriate level, wherein we had requested for enhancement in the number of days for payment of PLB on account of enhanced productivity given by the railway employees," a letter from the All India Railwaymen's Federation to the Railway Board chairman stated.
"Railwaymen working under arduous conditions in all the weathers had expected some enhanced PLB this year, but unfortunately, that has not been done," it added.
In the letter, general secretary of All India Railwaymen's Federation Shiva Gopal Mishra said though they appreciate the efforts made by the Ministry of Railways for enhanced PLB to railwaymen, it is their submission that, based on the productivity, the ministry should consider "suitable compensation" to railwaymen for the performance they have given last year.